Dogs Featured on Forever Postage Stamps

The United States Postal Service will have a special delivery for dog devotees later this year with the debut of new First-Class Forever stamps that celebrate our friends with fur, fins and feathers.

© 2016 USPS

Photographer Eric Isselée captured the cuteness of canines in both their puppy stage and at a more mature age in images for the upcoming booklet of 20 First-Class Forever postage. Along with a dog and puppy, the booklet will also include such popular companion animals as cats and kittens, parrots and parakeets, rabbits, horses, fish, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters and mice, geckos, hermit crabs, corn snakes, iguanas and tortoises.

© 2016 USPS

Stamp collectors have been able to accumulate a virtual pack of pooch-themed postage since 1887, when the country of Newfoundland introduced the very first Fido-inspired stamp featuring, what else, a Newfoundland. Dogs made their debut on a U.S. stamp in 1893, when a canine was spotted on a stamp commemorating Columbus. The first dog stamp to shine a spotlight on animal welfare was issued in 1966, and in 1990 fans of film and Fidos raced to the post office to purchase a stamp that featured Judy Garland and a Cairn Terrier named Terry, who will forever be remembered as Dorothy Gale’s devoted dog, Toto. In 2011 the U.S. postal service celebrated one of their own by unleashing a stamp that honored Owney, an abandoned dog who rode the rails across America with bags of mail back in the late 1880s.

Pets will be issued as Forever stamps, which are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce price.

© 2016 USPS